Calling an Audible

This has been a summer of surprises, but none bigger than an unexpected arrival just in time for my seventh decade—a pair of hearing aids!

I have noticed some difficulty hearing soft voices live or dialog on film, prompting me more than once to say, “Sorry?  Pardon?”

Now I know that some of the hairs in my ears no longer receive certain sounds, although, so far, my ability to distinguish consonants and vowels in normal speech is undisturbed.

Having spent over 15 years learning about and caring for family members with Alzheimer’s and other dementias, I know the critical importance of hearing in maintaining brain/cognitive health.  I will do whatever is necessary to maintain my brain.

There are several stories in my family about hearing loss.  My parents, cousins and aunt and uncle used to exclaim, “hardening” when someone missed a word or idea in a conversation or lost their train of thought.  That was long before we knew about the devastating consequences of memory loss and brain function.

More amusing was when my mother-in-law was watching my husband play a jazz trombone concert outdoors some years ago.  Tom, my husband, announced that he’d be playing a medley of ballads.

“A medley of salads,” my mother-in-law intoned quizzically?   Dressing on the side, please!

The other summer surprises are manageable and fixable—an old garage opening mechanism failed after more than a decade of use, a top dishwasher rack collapsed, and an outdoor entryway gate suddenly separated from the adobe brick wall. 

So, bring on unexpected surprises, because I’m calling an audible and facing aging.

But I wonder whether people might look at/respond to me differently with “those things” in my ears.   I’ll let you know.